


lost in days gone (to give it all up for new rebirth)

by BowAndDagger



Series: you'll arrange the stars to lead me home [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Curse of Hatred - Freeform, Don't copy to another site, Fix-It, Headcanon, M/M, Not-really-human-anymore!Naruto, Ootsutsuki Clan - Freeform, Or Zetsu, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Swiftly, Worldbuilding, genderfluid!naruto, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 09:43:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21455977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BowAndDagger/pseuds/BowAndDagger
Summary: Landing back in time hadn't been the plan. The plan had been to finish the mission, report to Kakashi-sensei and spend the next day training with his friends.But that damn seal had lit up from under his feet and now here he is: back at the beginning.Naruto is now in the prime position to make the world a better place for his future friends.(Taking Madara with him on his quest to save the world hadn't been the plan either. Neither had been Tobirama tagging along.)
Relationships: Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara, Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara & Uzumaki Naruto, Senju Tobirama & Uzumaki Naruto, Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara, Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara/Uzumaki Naruto, Senju Tobirama/Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Madara & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Madara/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: you'll arrange the stars to lead me home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546594
Comments: 29
Kudos: 571
Collections: Foxy fox 🦊





	lost in days gone (to give it all up for new rebirth)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from two different verses of 'Find me' (Rewind Version - Orchestral Ballad) by Aviators
> 
> Thanks to SolarCupid for helping me with Japanese culture. In the first chapter, it was just confirming how wandering monks/priests were treated. But I also got great inspiration for wooing and marriage and it's really great!
> 
> No idea how many chapters it's gonna be btw...
> 
> Enjoy!

Kurama is gone.

His loss pierces Naruto’s heart and grinds the shards into dust. Kurama had been at his side since his birth – hell, some could even argue he’d been at his side since his conception but it is a bit weird to say that out loud – and there is no one else who knows him as well as the fur-ball does.

Now, there is no one who knows him.

_One last mission_, Kakashi-sensei had said, _only one to finally validate your jounin promotion. A-rank and solo. Easy. You should be back in three days at most._

And ‘easy’ the mission had been.

The ruins of Loran had been acting up again and Naruto, as a budding seal master and the son of the one who had sealed the ruins, had been sent to evaluate the situation.

His father’s seal hadn’t been disturbed but the Ryumyaku had been acting up; straining against Minato Namikaze’s seal to fight against another encroaching seal. That second seal – purple lines snaking around and up the Ryumyaku Tower –had been of an unknown design.

Despite his study of the sealing arts and his reading of all the dusty Uzumaki scrolls he could scrounge up on the matter after the Fourth War, Naruto hadn’t recognised any of the symbols. Too arcane.

Or maybe too ancient.

After a war, Kurama’s nagging and the rigorous jounin training, Naruto had finally developed a sense of self-preservation. And, as he was examining those strange symbols, that sense had begun to tingle with insistence.

Then, the seals – both of them because he was _that_ lucky – had activated.

The Ryumyaku was a concentration of no less than ten different ley-lines from all over the world and filled to the brim with natural chakra. A nexus of power so powerful it had supported a whole nation for centuries in the middle of a desert on its own; providing its people with a power source, water and fertile lands.

(So powerful it had once allowed several people to travel back, and forward, in time.)

Whatever purpose that purple seal had – beyond attempting to siphon off the Ryumyaku – it had latched on the two more powerful sources of chakra upon its activation and drained them dry. Or, well, it had tried. The fox had thrown everything he was at Naruto, in a bid to protect the only human who had been willing to befriend him. Kurama had forced his will and chakra outward, taken hold of the nexus of ley-lines and pulled.

(Power is, in many ways, a power in itself.

The older the power is, the more versatile it becomes. The oldest sometimes manifest a sentience.)

(It is the case for the Trees of Konoha’s Forest of Death, pulled from the ground by Senju Hashirama himself, and infused with the life and blood and dreams of any who called Konoha their Home.

No Konoha shinobi will ever lose their life inside the Forest’s boundaries. None loyal, at least.)

(It is the case of the Ryumyaku.

It has sheltered countless of lives for centuries. It has seen the birth of a kingdom and its fall. It knows its people have survived thanks to several shinobi bearing a leaf-branded headband. It knows that a shinobi in particular is to thank for the survival of the first family to ever call Loran their home. One with the presence of a being almost as old as the Ryumyaku itsel inside of them.

So, when a seal begins to pull at its power, the Ryumyaku resists.

When the ancient-being-of-fire pulls at it in a last bid to save the shinobi, the Ryumyaku lets him.

There is nothing safe for the leaf-shinobi here. Not here. Not then. So it sends him where – and when – they will be.

It has a debt to pay.)

Naruto had felt his body disintegrate and reform before disintegrating again.

Blood becoming ash. Ash becoming flesh that dissolves into blood.

The cycle had continued for a long time. He has no idea how long. One hour? Two? A day? An eternity? More?

It ends when he lands abruptly on the ground; his breath leaves his lungs empty of air and he lays gasping for a long time, reeling.

He can feel the air on his skin on a level he had never felt before; as if he could easily pinpoint the position of anyone and anything around him without opening his eyes. He can smell better and he can hear the ducks flapping their wings while knowing they are several metres under and away from him.

As he regains his breath, Naruto licks his dry lips and freezes. The tip of his tongue carefully test the edge of his canines. Once. Twice. He sits up, a hand coming to his mouth to investigate what his tongue felt. His eyeteeth are sharp. Sharper than they ever were. Like an Inuzuka’s.

What has happened?

“Kurama…? Kurama!”

The fox doesn’t answer him. His friend is gone.

(With the fox gone, the blond had inherited parts of Kurama’s chakra as well as some animalistic traits.

All of which Naruto would gladly give back if it means having the grumpy fox at his side, here.)

‘Here’ being the past, apparently. It had taken him some time to realise the hill he woke up on was the Hokage Monument – now bare of all faces – or that the vast expanse of forest under him was where Konoha will be founded.

There had been a lot of flailing and cursing and probably one or two panic attacks. Naruto can’t really remember those first hours spent in the past. Everything had been a blur of pain, both physical and mental as his body tried to adapt to its new abilities and changes as he tried to deal with the fact he may never see his precious people ever again.

(Not that he won’t try but… Kurama’s last gift has also included knowledge the Sage had imparted to his disciples and children.

The chances that he would find the right combination of chakra, seal, time and space to land at the exact same spot as he was before that forsaken seal was activated and not break the timeline?

Not good at all.

Inexistent, in fact.)

(The new knowledge also concerns memories and events seen through Kurama’s Jinchuuriki: lessons learned and given, his parents’ first date, Mito meeting his mother… So many little pieces of his past now clicking together like some sort of puzzle he hadn’t know he was assembling.

He could have done without some of those memories though… He shudders. He could have gone his whole life without seeing his parents – or Mito-baa-chan or Hashirama-jii – like that!)

At the same time… At the same time, he is now in the prime position to protect his precious people by ending Zetsu before he can wreak havoc on the Villages.

Naruto takes a long breath. Once. Twice. Okay. He needs to regroup, rest, think about the situation, plan and probably take a bath. He takes a sniff at his clothes and armpits only to get a nose full of road dust, sand and old stone. He sneezes. His new senses are even more sensitive than before, it’ll take a while before he’ll adjust completely.

A quick riffling through his pockets and pouches gives him an estimate of his resources: a few thousands ryo, some ration bars, fuuinjutsu supplies and plenty of shuriken and kunai.

The mission he’d been on when he stumbled upon that damn seal had been one of reconnaissance and infiltration which means he’d been forced a kunai-point into less attention-grabbing clothes. That hadn’t stopped him from wearing one of his favourite orange top underneath his new brown – bland – coat and packing a few others garments of a similar shade in storage scrolls.

He keeps searching his pouches, tension building, worried he’s not going to…

He finds it. Naruto can feel himself relax in deep-seated relief when he finds one last scroll. A bit of blood and chakra later, he holds the shakujo his friends got him as a belated birthday present after the war, almost two years ago now. That weapon and his Konoha hitai-ate are the only objects of personal value he now possesses. Everything else is in a flat situated in a village that doesn’t exist yet.

(He’s a shinobi. He was trained to let go of material possession.

The risk of losing everything during a mission – of having to survive with only the clothes on their backs and what their environment could give them – had been one of their first serious lessons, back at the Academy.

But there still had been a home to return to. A home where there were allies, safety, comfort, a personal space where their belongings remained and places where they could replace what they had lost.

Naruto, living alone as he did, had been somewhat used to letting go of things because of his upbringing. The orphanage hadn’t been a safe storage place; too open and too many kids used to take what pleased them from the ‘monster child’. Likewise, his apartment hadn’t been very safe, not in his early pre-Academy years, not until Iruka-sensei had taught him enough traps to protect his space.

But he had had a few hiding places scattered around the village while always keeping his meagre savings on him at all time. A habit he had yet to lose since he still had not opened a bank account.

But he still had had places where his things were. Where he could go to restock and decompress. Where he could be safe.

Now, he has nothing.)

Everything he has on him is new, thanks to his last growth spurt. So, at least, he won’t have to buy clothes for some time. He even has some winter and camping gears stocked away in one scroll. If he is careful, both of his materials and of his money, then he’d be alright.

Especially since Naruto distantly remembers Iruka-sensei teaching them about price inflation... He recalls paying attention a lot during that lesson since he had to balance a budget ever since the day he entered the Academy. It had helped some – especially when it came to balance his ramen budget against rent and everyday life. He’s probably one of the richest guys around considering he has both his mission money and the savings of his life on him.

(Seems his memory took a boost as well and not just his senses… Hum, something to test later.)

After tidying everything up, and erasing any traces of his passage, he leaves. When Naruto tries to reach out with his chakra to locate the shinobi around him, he gives himself one hell of a headache by reaching too far by accident. He almost brains himself on a tree during the attempt. Whelp. He’ll have to work on chakra control. Again.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The first thing he does is to seek a civilian village. Civilians won’t really be able to inform him on the shinobi political side of things but they’ll at least inform him of who is to be avoided and what his going on in Fire Country as a whole. After a bit of deliberation, he goes in as a wandering monk, carefully hiding the extra rings until only four are left.

(Better to pass himself as a novice monk than to assume the disguise of a more experienced one while knowing almost nothing of their way of life. This way he’ll be able to excuse his lacks of knowledge in some matters.)

(Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Lee and Tenten as well as Sasuke and Konohamaru had gone together to special-order the weapon at a blacksmith specialised in forging chakra blades. Each part of the shakujo – the nine rings, the circle and the handle – represented one of his friends. As an added bonus, the rings were also a reference to the bijuu and Kurama’s tails.

Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-baa-chan’s contribution had been to give him a few scrolls to learn different shakujo-based fighting styles. That some of those scrolls had been recovered from Uzushio’s ruins or the Senju’s personal library had never been addressed.

Naruto fell in love with his new weapon the first time he held it in his hand, dedicating several clones per days for months to master the weapon.

The only way to make the shakujo cooler would have been to paint it orange. His friends had been quick – perhaps too quick – to inform him the paint could damage the metal.)

Naruto is happily welcomed in the village and offered room and board by the village chief. They all refuse his money when he offers to pay for his stay; so he reverse-pickpockets a few coins in his hosts’ pouches when they’re not looking. He knows priests and monks don’t usually pay for their stay but he’s not really one, so…

When night falls and the village is long asleep, he sends out a few shadow clones to fix a few roofs with the help of some noise-cancelling seals and fences and two others to fetch medicinal herbs in the nearby forest – it’s high time Sakura’s first aid lessons start to pay out. He won’t be able to create potions and cures from scratch but he’ll be able to mix a few ointments disinfectant the villagers can easily use.

Once his clones are occupied, he sits down in full lotus to meditate.

His chakra is weird. Different. Before, it had been a mix between his wind-and-life and Kurama’s ancient-fire. Now, it’s still full of his wind affinity, still full of life. But he can feel fire slumbering at his core, the earth’s strenght under his feet and the water in the air. If he concentrates, he can almost feel the static high up in the clouds.

His chakra is not the only thing to feel different: the world is, too. But in a different way. Naruto doesn’t know how to describe it.

It’s… It’s like the world is being strangled.

Like someone as put a boulder on his shoulder and is trying their very best to make breathing – to make _living_ – difficult.

He can touch nature chakra, can manipulate it and use it with ease. But it feels oily, corrupted.

As he stands in the space Kurama used to occupy within his mind – now devoid of life other than him but full of the trees and bushes and the small lagoon Naruto had painstakingly added to make the fox’s stay more enjoyable – he wonders if his grumpy friend’s presence had purified the natural chakra, somehow.

Far, far west from his position, Naruto can sense Kurama’s slumbering chakra. But it’s a Kurama who doesn’t know him.

A Kurama who doesn’t have any reason to see humans as anything other than insignificant ants.

But it’s also a Kurama who hasn’t experienced the Sharingan’s mind control; who hasn’t been used against his will and imprisoned.

That realisation is a relief.

There and then, Naruto makes himself a promise: he’ll ensure the bijuu will never be emprisoned, that neither the bijuu nor the kinchuuriki will ever suffer. And, if he lives long enough, he’ll try to introduce his generation of jinchuuriki to their bijuu. Imagining Bee without Gyuki or Gaara without Shukaku is anathema.

“There you are.”

The gruff voice makes him jump. Heartbeat loud in his ears, he twists and turns to face its origins. He knows it can’t be Kurama’s. He _knows_. But he _hopes_. He hopes that, somehow, one of his friends is with him in this time so far from home.

It isn’t.

(The dejection shouldn’t be this crushing. He had _known_.)

The Sage of Six Paths gazes serenely at him.


End file.
